


Sketchy

by PaisleyWraith



Category: South Park
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 04:03:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15699774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaisleyWraith/pseuds/PaisleyWraith
Summary: Sometimes you can grow up with someone and still overlook something important to them. Kyle never imagined his friend was capable of art this beautifully executed, though the contents were...expected.





	Sketchy

One simple question. Kyle was sitting on Stan’s back porch, still sweating from playing basketball out in the park with their friends, gulping down ice water and listening to Stan talk about his new puppy. A perfect summer afternoon, the breeze picking through the backyard as the redhead watched the brindle pup gnawing on Stan’s hand with it’s tiny teeth. 

Reminded him a little of being stupid kids again, hanging out in the backyards with no real responsibilities, warm Colorado summers giving them a reprieve from school. 

He guessed they were still kids, and still stupid, but he still felt nostalgic.

“Hey, guys!” Dickwad himself slid open the back door, letting himself out onto the back porch with surprising gusto. “Guys, did you know Kinnie can draw?”

Kyle didn’t know what he expected. He had to draw up his legs to keep Cartman from stepping on him, scowling as the boy plopped heavily onto the porch. 

Cartman slapped down a notebook with a tattered cloth, making the puppy jump and cautiously inch forward before Stan scooped him up in his arms. 

“What’s that?” Kyle asked, setting down his glass and wiping his forehead. 

“Take a look,” Cartman said smugly, opening up the first few pages. 

He should have expected this. 

A pair of disturbingly-detailed boobs took up the majority of the page, the woman’s face vague and hair in waves. Figures were scattered over the open pages, all women in various states of undress. 

“Nice,” Stan said flatly, settling back against the porch. “Why do you have Kenny’s notebook?”

The figures were weirdly perfect, proportions accurate and even the hands carefully drawn and shaded in pencil. He spent time on this. 

Cartman skipped a couple pages, and Stan was distracted enough to let his grip on the dog slip, Kyle reaching for the thing that immediately began trying to devour Kyle instead. 

“Huh,” Stan said, looking at a specific corner. 

Stan was there, lanky and leaning, talking to Wendy. He was wearing a shirt Kyle recognized, the wrinkles shaded carefully and his body posture nervous but eager. 

Butters was in a corner, sitting and looking dejected. Bebe was giggling with Red, fingers of one hand in her curls, and one of Kenny’s ex-boyfriends stark naked, covered by angry scribbles that caught Kyle off guard. 

Kenny never seemed angry at any of his exes, male or female, so that didn’t really make sense to him. What made him scratch this one out? He didn’t remember this guy’s name. He did recall he disliked him, however, so maybe he’d said or done something to make Kenny angry at him-

“Okay, great. So where’s Kenny and why do you have his book?” Stan said again, still peering at himself. 

“Kinnie’s getting off work,” Cartman still looked far too smug for a book of naked pictures. This wasn’t something uncommon to the kid. “And looks like he’s getting off on something else, too!” 

He skimmed forward another couple pages, and Kyle nearly choked on his own tongue. 

His own face stared back at him, taking up almost the entire page. He was…

He was definitely naked, his posture covering anything sensitive, but he did _not_ recall ever making that pose. Or that expression. 

Arms above his head, one hand on his face, a leg drawn up and body twisted. His expression was sensual, eyes peering through his eyelashes at whoever was looking at the page. 

“Oh my god, _no_ ,” Stan said, hands coming up to his face. “What the fuck, _Kyle_ -”

“I had nothing to do with this!” Kyle’s heart jumped into his throat as he stumbled over his words. “I don’t know what the fuck this is!”

Cartman held the book out of arm’s reach, gleefully grinning as he waved the sketches at Kyle. “You’re not posing nude for Kinnie, Kal? You sure?”

Kyle stood, dropping the dog into Stan’s lap as he slapped the book from his hands. 

“Damn sure,” He said furiously, knuckles white around the binder. “I don’t know why he drew me but I did _not_ okay this!”

“You take up like, half the book,” Cartman said smugly, eyes glittering. “Kinnie’s interested in all kinds of shit, I know, but I wouldn’t have thought he’d be into your ugly, pasty ass-”

Kenny himself bounded through the Marsh’s back door, coming to a standstill at the picture he saw standing before him. 

Cartman was smiling like it was his birthday as he twisted around to face him, Stan was holding a dog upside-down to his chest and watching Kenny with a uncomfortable expression, and Kyle was red-faced and holding the canvas notebook in his hands as he stared back at the blond. 

Kenny was still, taking in all their faces, looking Kyle in the eyes. 

And then he bolted. 

“ _What?!_ ” Kyle shouted after him, nearly throwing the notebook after him. “Are you serious, Kenny?!” 

Kenny, of course, didn’t reply, having leapt over the side of the porch and vaulted over the Marsh’s fucking fence. Cartman was laughing himself to tears, Stan had stood and was now elbow-to-elbow with Kyle, and the dog was over by the fence barking it’s little head off after the blond. 

“Kyle,” Stan began, but Kyle wasn’t waiting. 

He shoved Cartman aside, roughly, barely restraining himself from aiming a kick at him. 

“I’ll deal with you later, fuckass,” He threatened, and Cartman’s eyes narrowed. 

“Go expose your weiner to your _boyfriend_ , Kal,” He sneered in reply. “Give Kenny something else to fap to.”

Kyle ground his teeth, foot connecting to his side. He didn’t wait for the aftermath, flying through the house and dodging a pissy-looking older sister visting from college, ignoring any comments in his direction to jump out the front door and head towards Kenny’s house. 

God fucking dammit. 

Kenny was already nowhere to be seen. He had to have cut through Kyle’s yard, but he knew he wouldn’t have stayed there. He’d have to be careful going to Kenny’s house, too, last time he’d come around Stuart had literally thrown something at him like he was some kind of stray cat. 

What the hell was this? Kyle sent a wary look towards his own house before flipping the book open, walking and looking at the same time. 

Cartman wasn’t wrong. While the first part was mostly taken up by multitudes of naked women, a couple of their friends sprinkled here and there, (thankfully clothed), and countless pictures of Kyle himself. 

He started appearing alongside their other friends, walking with Stan, chatting with an ex-girlfriend, leaning over the lunch table to threaten Cartman over something. 

One of him made him slow his pace, looking around carefully before leaning on his fence. He was on the basketball court, obviously, hair tied back and stretched out to keep the ball away from a vague opponent. He was flanked by Token and Bradley from behind, sending a smirk at the opponent. 

It was…bizarrely well-drawn. His body was leaning on one foot, his jersey whipping to the side with the motion. His curls were springing free and plastered to his face with sweat, a sheen on his skin, drawn with pencil. He could see that he was sweating just by how Kenny drew it. 

Kyle automatically went to brush his hair back, temporarily forgetting he’d shaved his head down for the summer. He flipped the pages. 

It was almost all him, now. 

A lot of him from the shoulders up, with a plethora of expressions, varying from annoyance to rage to a soft, fond smile. 

That one caught Kyle’s interest. Kyle rested on his heels, still leaning against the fence, as he held the book closer to his face. 

His eyes were detailed, flecks of what in real life would be brown were speckled through the iris. His curls were drawn in spirals, flyaways around his face and eyelashes casting shadows on his cheeks. His eyebrows were drawn with individual hairs, unmatching and thick, Kenny hadn’t prettied him up any. 

And yet he was distinctly sure he wasn’t this handsome in real life. 

Kyle flipped the page and was greeted by things he really didn’t want to see in any context other than his own personal life. 

“Oh my fucking god.” 

Unlike the one Cartman had shown him, this portrait wasn’t hiding a damn thing. He was drawn naked. In detail. 

And it wasn’t just one. 

He was going to _kill_ Kenny. 

He shut the book, smacking himself in the forehead with it. For fuck’s sake. He was very interested in hearing this explanation. 

And then he was going to kill Cartman. 

Kyle trudged across the train tracks, towards the McCormick residence and the soft smoke rising from the trash yard. He reached the chain link fence the town had constructed around the residence. The gate was closed, a chain linked around it, and Kyle growled. 

He tossed the book over the fence, jumping up to swing himself over the structure and drop to the ground on the other side. Kenny had never given him a straight answer as to why the fence was here, responses typically running from ‘You’re not in high enough clearance to know’ to ‘They’re trying to contain all this _sexy_ ’.

He picked up the book, pausing as he saw resident drug addicts skittering away from the middle of the junkyard. Kyle watched them retreat into the garage, turning his gaze to the white plume of smoke. 

He skirted around piles of random shit, wrinkling his nose and accidentally toppling a barrel of questionable liquid as he came into sight of a broken, rusted fireplace and a blond slumped, leaning on a wheel-less car and watching the flames.

“Kenny!” Kyle called to him, and the blond’s gaze whipped over, arms uncrossing to rest on the hood of the vehicle. “The fuck is going on?”

“Hey,” He said, beat-up sneaker resting on the bumper. “What’s up, hot stuff?”

Kyle smacked him in the shoulder with the book, much more gently than his tone suggested he might be. “First of all, how the fuck did Fatass get something like this?!”

“Well,” Kenny was immediately interrupted again. 

“We just told Stan _yesterday,_ my parents don’t know and Cartman can’t fucking know before they do or he’ll fucking ruin _everything_.”

“Yeah-” Kenny began, but Kyle smacked him with the notebook again, even lighter. 

“ _You drew me naked_!” Kyle’s face was hot, and he doubted it had anything to do with his proximity to the old fire pit. “Kenneth McCormick, I didn’t even know you could fucking _draw_!”

Kenny waited, blue eyes flitting between Kyle’s, finally speaking once he was certain Kyle was going to let him. 

“He was visiting me at work,” Kenny said easily, stretching out over the car. “Guess he went through my backpack.”

“You regularly carry this with you to work?” Kyle flipped through the book, opening the page to a Kyle leaning, ass on display. “This? You carry naked woman and friends around at _work?!_ ”

Kenny snatched the book out of his hands and tossed it onto the fire, prompting a heavy gasp from Kyle. 

“Kenny!” Kyle had the bizarre urge to reach into the flames and pull the book out of the fire. He watched in distress as the book burned, noting the regular, dollar-store notebooks and spiral notebooks burning underneath it. 

Everything was quiet for a second, with Kenny staring grimly at the fire and Kyle’s heart sinking. 

The picture of Stan and Wendy, a bubbly Clyde, Kyle playing basketball, that odd and surprisingly sweet picture of him smiling. Probably years’ worth of work and art, gone. Currently burning in a junkyard at dusk. 

Kyle said nothing, leaning back against the car as Kenny settled back again, staring up at the sky. 

The book burned away, pages curling and flames licking at the cover. 

The redhead looked at the boy, who’s face was utterly passive and tight in the jaw, avoiding Kyle’s gaze. 

He hadn’t even known he could draw. He definitely didn’t expect what he saw, but he definitely didn’t expect Kenny to look so unhappy, to have bolted away and burned everything he worked on. 

“Some of those pictures were beautiful,” Kyle said slowly, resting a shoe on the bumper as well. “Ken, I would have wanted a couple of those pictures.”

There, the boy turned, something wary and raw in his expression, making Kyle’s heart jump. Well this was…rare. He chewed the inside of his lip, brows furrowing. 

“When did you start drawing?” Kyle asked him, leaning on one elbow. “I do not remember you being an artist.” 

“Eh. Just started doodling in school.” Kenny hesitated, eyes flicking away before he looked back at Kyle. “How much of the book did you look through?”

“Enough to see my own _ass,_ Kenny, a whole page of my ass!” Kyle rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying not to start screeching in humiliation. “And pages of naked women, though there wasn’t _nearly_ as many boobs as I expected-”

“Older books,” Kenny pointed with the toe of his shoe without looking. “You want lady boobs and vaginas? I had ‘em. You had the wrong book.”

That just raised more questions. Kyle drew in a breath. “How old was that book?”

“Whaddya mean?” Kenny drawled lightly, tensing. 

“You had your last boyfriend in there,” Kyle recalled, “Crossed out. And you broke up with him late last summer.”

“Yeah, I started it like two years ago,” Kenny muttered. “But it was still my newest book.”

Goddamn motherfucker. Trying to get information out of Kenny was a pain in the ass. Kyle turned, leaning over the blond still lying on the car. There was one thought prickling at his brain. 

“You drew me-” Kyle started, and Kenny finally covered his eyes. 

“Yeah, I know, I shouldn’t have fucking done that,” The blond burst. “I got rid of them. You weren’t supposed to know about that. Alright? It’s gone and hopefully you won’t remember anything about this.”

“Ex-fucking-cuse me?” Kyle pried his hands away from his face, holding his wrists in his hands. “Yes that was fucking weird but holy shit, Kenny, you didn’t have to _burn_ everything you worked on!”

Kenny’s chest expanded, relaxing into Kyle’s grip. The fire sent shadows flickering over his face, blue eyes dark.

It was impossible to tell what he was thinking sometimes. It was infuriating and intriguing and Kyle loved and hated this aspect of the boy. 

He leaned down, kissing Kenny on the lips, feeling the boy sigh against his mouth. Kyle shifted, letting go of his wrists, Kenny’s hands falling onto his shoulders. 

Kyle kept it brief, kissing his mouth softly before leaning back, Kenny’s hand tracing Kyle’s jaw and neck with gentle curiosity. 

“I drew those before we started dating,” Kenny blurted, as if confessing to something incredibly secretive. “I began before I even knew you also liked guys.”

So he was right. In Kenny’s weird, crass way, he’d become interested in Kyle and began expressing that in the book he’d looked through. That was still disturbing but in a…sweet way?

He still needed to think about that. 

“I’m more pissed that Cartman saw them,” Kyle rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m going to have to punch him in the dick. He’d going to have some smart comments.” 

“I’ll let you,” Kenny said cheerfully, pulling Kyle’s hand away. “You sure you don’t want to kill me, babe?”

“Still deciding,” Kyle said wryly. “You should have…if you asked me, after we started dating, I _probably_ would have said okay.”

“You would have let me draw you naked?” Kenny’s brows nearly disappeared into his hairline. “Really?”

He might’ve spoken without thinking. Kyle hastily switched topics. 

“Kenny, you’re a fucking artist,” Kenny’s hand cupped Kyle’s cheek as the redhead spoke earnestly. “Holy fucking shit, I had no idea you could draw like that.”

“I can doodle,” Kenny replied, biting his lip to keep from looking too pleased. 

“You’re amazing,” Kyle corrected him, making Kenny snort softly. “I’m fucking serious, Kenny, you’re incredible and _I had no idea_.” 

“Yeah, well I wasn’t exactly drawing that shit on my assignment sheets, was I?” Kenny brushed his thumb over his cheek. 

“You don’t understand,” Kyle said stubbornly, leaning on his elbows above the boy. “I’ve known you forever. You’re integrated into my childhood, my _life_ , and I had no goddamn idea you were this talented at drawing. I had no fucking clue. Some of those pictures are breathtaking, Kenny. They were beautiful.” 

Kenny swallowed, visibly, staying quiet. 

“Your anatomy looks perfect. Your shading is incredible, everything has depth and movement and it’s just gorgeous,” Kyle ran a hand through his hair, blue eyes burning into his own. “You can create the weight of clothing, the texture of hair, the sheen of _sweat_ , Kenny, you’re fucking amazing.” 

Kenny’s hand pressed against the nape of his neck, yanking him down for another kiss. One longer, deep, a little sloppy on his part which was honestly a little unusual. Kenny had a fistful of Kyle’s shirt when they finally broke the kiss, panting against his mouth and making Kyle shiver. 

“You’re gorgeous,” Kenny blabbered, drawing Kyle’s forehead to press against his own. “I’ve always thought you were pretty, I spent hours on you even before I knew why, you’re a handsome, sexy piece of ass and I’m crazy about you.” 

Kyle laughed, breathlessly, a happy, flustered feeling stirring in his heart. “Holy shit, dude.” 

“I’ll draw you something better,” Kenny promised. “You can okay it. And I’ll just do it for you, this time.”

His heart just might give out on him. Kyle just about melted. 

“Charming your way out of this, asshole?” Kyle’s tone was far too sweet for the words to be taken seriously. 

“I think so,” Kenny’s eyes sparkled. “Working?” 

“Yeah,” Kyle nuzzled a kiss to his cheek, following it with several more, making Kenny giggle. 

There was still the whole deal with what to do with Cartman. And the question about the scribbled-out ex in the notebook. What pictures had been in the back and if they’d changed at all once they started dating. 

Kyle might just mourn the loss of the pictures. He missed his one big insight into Kenny’s brain, a chance to look at the timeline and try to find out a few more secrets about the taller boy. 

Though, with the way Kenny was smiling at him, Kyle was finding it hard to regret much of anything. 

“I’m sorry about your books,” He said anyhow, gently. Kenny shrugged. 

“Eh. I needed a restart,” He said easily, back to being nonchalant and cheery. 

At least he’d let Kyle see he was upset earlier. Surely that was improvement? It had to be. Kyle exhaled, slowly. 

“See, I didn’t kill you,” He teased. “And I didn’t need to forget about it. Were you going to beat me over the head with a lead pipe or something?” 

“Oh, I’m sure there’s a few lying around, still,” Kenny said lightly, though something flit through his eyes. 

Kyle narrowed his. Another odd look, one Kyle couldn’t decipher. “You alright?”

“Oh yeah.” In another moment it was gone, and Kenny’s arms looped around Kyle’s waist. “I’m…I’m actually pretty good, I think.”

This was getting uncomfortable, but Kyle remained where he was anyhow, leaning over Kenny and being snuggled by the blond. 

“Good,” He said, resting his head on Kenny’s shoulder. “You’ll have to tell me what I can get you in return for a picture, though.” 

He expected something lewd in reply. At the very least, something smarmy. What he didn’t expect was the cheerful, genuinely warm laugh in his ear, accompanied by a kiss there that made chills run up Kyle’s spine. 

“Nah, man, we’ll be even,” Kenny said warmly. “Don’t worry about it.” 

Something was odd about that. Something told Kyle that went beyond forgiving him for being a hormonal teenager trying to express frustrated feelings through art. 

He was itching to press him, but even he sometimes knew when to call it quits. 

“I’ll tell my parents this weekend,” He said instead. “And Cartman can eat a bag of dicks.” 

Kenny said nothing, lazily drawing invisible pictures on Kyle’s back instead. “Mmhm.” 

He would. He’d tell his parents and he’d stick by Kenny. The kid had grown up to be way more mature than him, far more responsible, he just hid it so far in that cloak of raunchy and goofiness that most people overlooked it. 

Including Kyle. 

He didn’t have a sketchbook to look through and try and pinpoint the moment he stopped seeing Kenny McCormick as just a friend. It was too gradual. He just knew he repeatedly, unfailingly, kept finding himself more and more in awe of who he was, what he was capable of. 

“You’re just amazing,” Kyle said again, fervently, wanting Kenny to know he meant it. He absolutely meant it and was ready to beat down anyone who stepped up to say otherwise. Kenny was _his_ now, he was his boyfriend, and Kyle was determined to unravel the mystery of who the kid was and find out what other marvels the other kid was capable of. 

“You too, gorgeous,” Kenny replied, warmly, pulse thudding under Kyle’s ear. 

Night finally settled over the junkyard, falling over charred books and two entangled teenagers, engulfing a third with his hands on his hips, on his front porch staring into the darkness as a brindle puppy ran around his feet.


End file.
